(meteorobs) Perseid reporting

[Rainer Arlt]

Dear enthousiasts,

The Perseids reached ZHRs of roughly 40 last night.
We are in a small camp near Berlin and observed in the
last three nights, more or less disturbed by clouds,
but it wasn't too bad.

The maximum next night will probably be covered by 
many observers world-wide. Let me just remind you of 
reporting your data to the IMO with the online form
at

   http://www.imo.net/visual/report/electronic

The form may look a bit lengthy for beginners, but it
isn't all that bad. In the simplest (but no less useful)
case, just discriminate PER and non-Perseids (=SPO).
Just remember that we need times in Universal TIME (UT). 
Periods should be as short as 10-15 minutes. Teff is
the effective observing time, it is minutes/60. A 10-min
period gives Teff=0.167, a 15-min period is Teff=0.25.
The strange F factor is for cloud obstructions; if there 
were none, write F = 1.00. A 10% coverage of your field 
translates into F=1.11, 20% into 1.25, and if it's worse, 
rather stop observing.

If you get to the magnitude distributions, it is best
to report the PER distributions for the same periods
as you did the PER numbers and SPO numbers in the table
above it. SPO can have just a single magnitude 
distribution for the night, to keep it simple.

Note that you do not have to enter the _entire_ night
in one form. You can report e.g. hour by hour with new 
forms. If in any case a problem with your browser or 
internet connection occurs, you thus do not lose the 
entire night's input.

If you need any help, just drop me or other regular
observers a message. I guess I will be online most of
the time.

Best wishes,
Rainer


Dr Rainer Arlt - www.rainerarlt.de -  +49-331-7499-354 skype: rainerarlt
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam (AIP)
An der Sternwarte 16, D-14482 Potsdam

Vorstand: Prof. Dr. Matthias Steinmetz, Peter A. Stolz
Stiftung privaten Rechts, Stiftungsverzeichnis Brandenburg: III/7-71-026
------------------------------------------------------------------------